The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1887-10-02
Get the Labor Problem Right.

Get tho Labor Problem Right.
As the procession Of trades unions passed
down Broadway the other day this motto was
borne emblazoned on large piece OF cotton
duck:
Labor created Capital Therefore Capital shoud not
Cypress Labor"
The canvas was borne by body Of men
who did not seem oppressed. They carried
themselves stiffly erect, and looked stalwart.
There was not much speculation Of the mer-
camille kind In their eyes, but they were all
well conditioned.
= Is II true that labor creates capitalP Il is
certainly not always true. Many thousand
men worked several years In building the
West Shore Railroad. Did they create any
capital They deprecated the capital Of
parallel lines. and produced conditions which
finally eliminated In depression and panic.
They really destroyed many hundred mil
lions of capital which IL cost years to re-
store. But while they were engaged In
their destructive work q man who went trap
ping In the silver mining regions Of the West,
possibly to escape laoor, accidentally struck
rich voin and not only became millionaire
himself, but helped to make several others
mlllionaires. How many years have passed
since the great hotel at Rockaway Beach
was completed? Did labor create any capt.
tai in that undertaking. That extraordinary
pile has long stood a monument to human
folly. It has seemed wonderful that the
proprietors II at this time any proprietary
claims can be located, did not long since In
woke labor to pull 1t down to see II q little
capital could not be created through Its de-
struction. They are trusting possibly. to
the final triumph of the wickedness Of un-
earned increment.
It Is not labor that creates capital. It Is
created by actual profits. But labor pre-
pares the conditions through which profits
may be obtained. This may be said In de-
fence Of the claim that labor creates capital;
but even this much cannot be admitted
without great qualification. What Is the
chief productive force In modern industry?
A number Of years ago twas computed that
the steam engines Ut the United Kingdom
performed the labor Of six hundred million
men. But It. cost the labor OF only o few thou
sand miners and engineers to keep this vast
force In operation, a force that stood
to labor In producing power as one hundred
to one. Look abroad In the world and you
will find the wealth OF nations to be very ao-
curately measured by the number Of their
steam engines. Russia Is very poor coun-
try. Yet Russia performs a greater amount
Of manual labor than any other nation that
ranks as civilized In geographical classlfica-
ton. But the labor Of Russia Is unfruitful.
There are possibly more steam engines In
the city OF New York and its immediate neigh
borhood than in the entire Russian Empire.
It may appear a little cruel to men whose
economic notions are more sentimental than
practical, to attack tho seemingly harmless
fiction about the creation Of capital by labor.
But the fiction Is not harmless. Economic
fctions are never harmless; for political
movements are closely related to economic
facts. A whole nation may be led In the
wrong direction, and placed In disastrous
position, by some apparently unimportant
economic misconception. It Is because Of
errors no more important than this error
that the GEORGE party. with its East Indian
and semi-barbarlc theory of land tenureand
taxation. has become possible; and though
this may seem matter OF small moment,
it has led to great waste Of money and the
devastation Of good many pockets. So long
as workmen believe that labor is the chief
factor In the creation Of wealth, they will fall
in turning their attention to the practical
work to be done by their organizations be-
fore these can emerge from their chrysalis
condition and become substantial benefit
to the members.
Not only 10 labor not the creator Of capital,
but capital cannot be created by labor In any
considerable amounts. The products Of Ia
Dor generally demand renewing each year.
How much Of the farm products Of the pass
ing year will be In existence at the end Of
the year to followp How many Of the un-
numbered million pairs Of new boots and
shoes that will DO turned out In 1887. can be
counted among the stock on hand at the
close OF 1882 If q single pair re-
mains not only unsold but not worn
out. it will represent disappointment
and loss to the shoemaker Nearly all
that labor produces In year 1t consumes In
a year, the few hundred millions In value of
comparatively imperishable commodities
produced being hardly worth counting
against the great mass that must be utterly
consumed and annihilated. Capital. In the
main, instead of being q product of labor,
Ii fruit OF the increase In value over
the cost OF Labor which every COM
modify may be made to command
after 1t has been taken from the hand
OF tho laborer and placed upon the market.
A very large proportion Of the annual In
crease in the wealth Of the country Is due to
natural increment following upon public inn
provements. The remainder Is product of
other forces that control the market. II
commodity brings more than the cost OF
production, some capital has been created;
II less, then some capital has been lost This
may not be quite true with few long-lived
commodities, but 1t is true generally.
This reasoning may be thought to point to
industrial cooperation as d remedy for the
inequalities oil which men complain. II
wealth be a product OF the market, work.
men must keep their commodities in their
own hands until they are sold. Theoreti-
cally, this sounds well; but fatal statistics
are always destroying theories made a
priOri. The annual increase OF wealth In the
United States. II divided equally. would give
only about S35 to each person; and when we